Extended Sunday opening hours

[Rhiannon]

Dear Wigs,

He gets my vote for Prime Minister.

Dear Rhiannon,

Sky falling in, not on me or you, but maybe your childrens children.

Sins of the Father

Gonnagle.

Because I bought jacket spuds?

[Shaker]

Dear Wigs,

He gets my vote for Prime Minister.

Dear Rhiannon,

Sky falling in, not on me or you, but maybe your childrens children.

Sins of the Father

Gonnagle.

Because I bought jacket spuds?

I think we're losing sight of the really important issue in all this, which is: was it just butter, or was it grated cheese, or baked beans, or perhaps even sour cream with chives?

[Hope]

I'm just going to cook ours, also bought yesterday. But would the sky really have fallen in if I'd bought the jacket potatoes at 9 am this morning rather than at 10 am as I am legally entitled to? Would that really make me some kind of greedy consumerist monster?

You could quite legitimately have bought them at 9am this morning as the law stands, Rhi.  Why the need to extend the opening hours of the large players?

[Shaker]

I'm just going to cook ours, also bought yesterday. But would the sky really have fallen in if I'd bought the jacket potatoes at 9 am this morning rather than at 10 am as I am legally entitled to? Would that really make me some kind of greedy consumerist monster?

You could quite legitimately have bought them at 9am this morning as the law stands, Rhi.  Why the need to extend the opening hours of the large players?

Not in any shop with a floorspace greater than 280 sq.m. or 3000 sq. ft. Does that not, in its pointless arbitrariness, seem absurd?

[Rhiannon]

I'm just going to cook ours, also bought yesterday. But would the sky really have fallen in if I'd bought the jacket potatoes at 9 am this morning rather than at 10 am as I am legally entitled to? Would that really make me some kind of greedy consumerist monster?

You could quite legitimately have bought them at 9am this morning as the law stands, Rhi.  Why the need to extend the opening hours of the large players?

Not in any shop with a floorspace greater than 280 sq.m. or 3000 sq. ft. Does that not, in its pointless arbitrariness, seem absurd?

And not locally. As said previously the convenience store (3 miles away) does little fresh fruit and veg and what there is, is rarely appetising.

I could, however, have bought manufactured frozen oven chips in little packets from the small shop. Much better for everyone. 

[Rhiannon]

Dear Wigs,

He gets my vote for Prime Minister.

Dear Rhiannon,

Sky falling in, not on me or you, but maybe your childrens children.

Sins of the Father

Gonnagle.

Because I bought jacket spuds?

I think we're losing sight of the really important issue in all this, which is: was it just butter, or was it grated cheese, or baked beans, or perhaps even sour cream with chives?

No meat though. But apparently my potatoes, salad and cheese are evilly unsustainable if bought today rather than yesterday.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon,

You and Shaker should be on stage, your both awfully funny.

Gonnagle.

[Rhiannon]

Did you have meat with your Sunday dinner, Gonners?

[jeremyp]

I'm just going to cook ours, also bought yesterday. But would the sky really have fallen in if I'd bought the jacket potatoes at 9 am this morning rather than at 10 am as I am legally entitled to? Would that really make me some kind of greedy consumerist monster?

You could quite legitimately have bought them at 9am this morning as the law stands, Rhi.

At a higher price than at the supermarket.

Why the need to extend the opening hours of the large players?

Why the need to subsidise inferior versions of the supermarkets?

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon,

Roast beef, and no I am not immune from human greed or stupidity.

Gonnagle.

[Hope]

At a higher price than at the supermarket.

At our local shop a bag of jacket pots is about 4p more expensive than at our nearest supermarket, which is about 3 miles away.  So, when travelling costs are taken into account, costs are more or less the same.

Why the need to extend the opening hours of the large players?

Why the need to subsidise inferior versions of the supermarkets?

In a sense, I'd agree; why do we have to have a Tesco Extra that opens from 7am - 11pm 7 days a week which charges over the odds for several-day old 'fresh' food, and other stuff?  Not only is the same stuff cheaper in the full-size supermarkets, its cheaper and better quality in the local independent green-grocer and butcher's.

[Rhiannon]

Dear Rhiannon,

Roast beef, and no I am not immune from human greed or stupidity.

Gonnagle.

So probably best not to point the finger at my 'sinfulness' for wanting to accommodate my family's vegetarian diet by sometimes shopping on a Sunday then. It doesn't make it better because you purchased it yesterday. There's nothing magic about avoiding buying stuff on Sundays.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/21/giving-up-beef-reduce-carbon-footprint-more-than-cars

[Shaker]

There's nothing magic about avoiding buying stuff on Sundays.

Yes there is - he that nippeth into Morrisons of a Sunday afternoon shall be sore afflicted with a plague of haemorrhoids, halitosis, athlete's foot and right minging scurf, yea I say unto you, even unto the tenth generation. Their sin shall be upon them.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon,

Who the hell is pointing the finger at you!!

If you want to have a go at me for eating meat you will get no argument.

I am pointing the finger at government and their sticking plaster approach to employment, economy and above all the mental welfare of society.

Money rules OK!!

Gonnagle.

[Rhiannon]

Dear Rhiannon,

Who the hell is pointing the finger at you!!

If you want to have a go at me for eating meat you will get no argument.

I am pointing the finger at government and their sticking plaster approach to employment, economy and above all the mental welfare of society.

Money rules OK!!

Gonnagle.

No, I have no desire to have a go at you for eating meat - we all misjudge things. But you very much do look like you are pointing the finger at me - sins of the fathers in a post referring to my children and in response to me talking about shopping on a Sunday?

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon,

Not your children, all children, and sins of the father is reference to what we leave our children, just like we are suffering for the sins of our fathers, climate change, a back lash for supplying guns instead of books, education, welfare .

Deep breathe Rhiannon.

Gonnagle.

[Rhiannon]

But why does me buying my veg on a Sunday make you weep? Why does it signify some kind of moral lack if I'd like to do it an hour earlier? Shopping for food on a Sunday isn't immoral unless all shopping for food is.

If you want to challenge consumerism how about starting with Vlad's idea that buying overpriced tourist tat from the National Trust isn't rampant consumerism but buying cheap tat from a supermarket is?

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon,

What makes me weep is you missing my point or the point.

Opening times whether it is Sunday or Monday is not the point.

24/7 consumerism is the point, having your fresh veg in tails so many man hours, needless man hours, so that you can enjoy fresh veg and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Gonnagle.

[jeremyp]

At a higher price than at the supermarket.

At our local shop a bag of jacket pots is about 4p more expensive than at our nearest supermarket, which is about 3 miles away.  So, when travelling costs are taken into account, costs are more or less the same.

Yes because everybody always buys one thing at a time when they go to the shops and everybody lives three miles closer to your local shop than they do to a supermarket.

On no, wait, that's completely not true.

its cheaper and better quality in the local independent green-grocer and butcher's.

Why do they have anything to fear from longer opening hours for supermarkets then?

[Rhiannon]

Dear Rhiannon,

What makes me weep is you missing my point or the point.

Opening times whether it is Sunday or Monday is not the point.

24/7 consumerism is the point, having your fresh veg in tails so many man hours, needless man hours, so that you can enjoy fresh veg and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Gonnagle.

Why? I don't want to shop in the evenings, let alone the middle of the night. What makes you think I do? But in my current circumstances I can't grow my own stuff so if I'm going to give my kids a healthy diet then buying it in it is. Meanwhile, perhaps you'll tell the people earning their wages during those 'pointless' hours that they shouldn't have a job.

I'd like a 24 hr pharmacy/chemist for emergencies admittedly.

[jeremyp]

Opening times whether it is Sunday or Monday is not the point.

As far as this thread is concerned, that is the point.

24/7 consumerism is the point

No it isn't, not on this thread.  I once went into my local Morrisons at 2am (it's open 24x6) and I was appalled by the rampant 24x6 consumerism... oh no wait, I was practically the only person in there.  This rampant 24x7 consumerism that you and your ilk are bringing up is a chimera.  It's a bogey man designed to scare us into shutting the shops down. 

You already have unrestricted shop hours in Scotland.  Do you think the consumerism is any more rampant there than it is here in England?   Or is it just the English who are uncontrollable in the face of a BOGOF and need to have their shops taken away?

, having your fresh veg in tails so many man hours, needless man hours, so that you can enjoy fresh veg and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I think I'll have my fresh veg in a bag please, not tails.  And I expect to get more than just the tip when I buy lettuce.  In the meantime, think of all those sinful jobs that are generated by people's decadent desires for fresh vegetables.

[Shaker]

He's on fire tonight, is Jezza.

[Rhiannon]

24/7 consumerism exists via the Internet. Sunday trading in the shops, 24/7 trading in the shops or closing down every supermarket and having a butcher, a baker and a grocer on every other street won't change that.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Shaker,

Aye he is a angry man, did I touch a nerve or was it my poor grammar, and maybe he should read back at my posts.

Nevermind, the wee bloke who is paid pennies in a far flung part of the empire so that Rhiannon can have her fresh veg is very thankful.

Dear Rhiannon,

Aye and your internet shopping also comes at a human cost.

Gonnagle.

[Rhiannon]

My internet shopping? I'm not condoning it, just pointing out the genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

And how dare you assume I don't read every label and buy local, fairtrade, British grown or at worst European produce? I even treat my kids to lectures about why we don't buy corn from Senegal and asparagus from Peru on our way round.